A high pitched beeping noise echoed around the small and cramped concrete room. Kara opened her eyes as her morning alarm went off for 4:00 AM. She stretched as much as she could on her bed, almost as firm as the concrete walls, before sitting up, her feet touching the chilly floor. She rolled her shoulders feeling her low grade cybernetic muscles tensing and vibrating beneath her skin. They’d cost most of her first few months of pay, but even with their cheapness, gave her the endurance to take on extra shift times. Her first of the day began at 5:00 AM and the last ending at 10:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday, a brutally long work schedule with virtually nonexistent pay. But that was the unfortunate reality of working for AsterCorp. The only thing that prevented a total replacement of the entire workforce with robot workers was the sheer overhead cost it would take to do so.
'Something’s got to give eventually,' she thought. Despite trying her best to get their voices heard at protests and rallies, the only responses they’d received from AsterCorp have been requests to cease their public movements or risk losing their jobs. That threat caused a large number of their workers rights movement to back off for fear of unemployment but not Kara. She kept handing out fliers, encouraging people to get together and get their voices heard. Her name had become quite well known now among the other workers. Some saw her as a threat to their employment as a whole, stating that their entire existence could be replaced with machines. Others looked up to her as a role model to follow. Despite her growing reputation, she was still allowed to take on extra hours, the pay she would then use to further her efforts. 'Protesting with company funds,' the thought mildly amused her. The whole idea of working for the same employer whom she was actively denouncing was woeful irony, yet an AsterCorp employment also guaranteed her food and shelter so long as she clocked in everyday. She stretched once more, feeling her synthetic muscles popping before getting dressed.
Her transit capsule pulled forward and she quickly hurried onboard. Her block was one of the first stops for this transit chain so she was always lucky enough to grab a seat rather than stand in the aisle. As a chime sounded, the capsule pulled away, it’s floor humming as it traveled along the rail towards the next stop. As she looked through the window, they passed the Ascend Education Centers. She had once thought about taking classes there, perhaps to get a job that wasn’t in construction, but she had never found the time. Now it was probably too late for her anyway, the space elevator was almost finished and if she got cut from AsterCorp, she would have nowhere to live in the city. She still hadn’t given much thought to what she would do. She supposed she could go home to Kenya. It would certainly be nice to see her family again, but to spend the money to fly back to Africa just to have to fly out for work again would be an expense she probably couldn’t afford. She heard talks that AsterCorp would be starting a second space elevator somewhere and that most of the workers would be transferred but it sounded more like desperate speculation.
'Not that I want to work for AsterCorp anymore anyway,' she thought. She’d been working far too many hours and with lack of progress on her protests, she wasn’t thrilled at the thought of turning this contract work into a career. When she had first moved from Kenya, she had naively imagined herself rising through a corporate ladder and coming out on top as some senior manager. Karla saw herself, returning home in a sharp business suit, sporting a pair of TechLenses as she stepped off a private jet. She’d take her family and build them a nice home so that they’d never have to work again. She thought if she had put in enough time, someone, somewhere would take notice and find some skill that was useful. As it was, the best skill she had was welding beams at 1200 kilometers in the air. Luckily she had outgrown this view rather early, it didn’t take long for someone to realize that once they started as an AsterCorp construction worker, they’d stay that way for the entire foreseeable future.
The capsule pulled into the block that housed non AsterCorp employees. A asian man wearing a security uniform sat next to her and promptly put his head back to sleep. His badge read Chen Long and indicated he worked for Skyforged Engineering. Another corporation known for their poor worker treatment. She half jokingly thought of handing him a worker’s rights pamphlet. His sunken face was heavily lined and the bags under his eyes indicated that his hours probably were just as bad as her own. However even if she did hand him a pamphlet, there was no guarantee he would agree to join. So many people in Manta were far to scared of their job security to ever speak up. At the moment, their weekly group meetings consisted only of a few dozen members. If they could get even one in ten workers in the city to join, their numbers would rank in the hundreds, enough to get their voices heard maybe. As her stop neared a chime sounded in her head from her OcCom implant. As she stood, she tucked a pamphlet into the still sleeping man’s jacket, wondering if she'd see him at that week's meeting.
'Something’s got to give eventually,' she thought. Despite trying her best to get their voices heard at protests and rallies, the only responses they’d received from AsterCorp have been requests to cease their public movements or risk losing their jobs. That threat caused a large number of their workers rights movement to back off for fear of unemployment but not Kara. She kept handing out fliers, encouraging people to get together and get their voices heard. Her name had become quite well known now among the other workers. Some saw her as a threat to their employment as a whole, stating that their entire existence could be replaced with machines. Others looked up to her as a role model to follow. Despite her growing reputation, she was still allowed to take on extra hours, the pay she would then use to further her efforts. 'Protesting with company funds,' the thought mildly amused her. The whole idea of working for the same employer whom she was actively denouncing was woeful irony, yet an AsterCorp employment also guaranteed her food and shelter so long as she clocked in everyday. She stretched once more, feeling her synthetic muscles popping before getting dressed.
Her transit capsule pulled forward and she quickly hurried onboard. Her block was one of the first stops for this transit chain so she was always lucky enough to grab a seat rather than stand in the aisle. As a chime sounded, the capsule pulled away, it’s floor humming as it traveled along the rail towards the next stop. As she looked through the window, they passed the Ascend Education Centers. She had once thought about taking classes there, perhaps to get a job that wasn’t in construction, but she had never found the time. Now it was probably too late for her anyway, the space elevator was almost finished and if she got cut from AsterCorp, she would have nowhere to live in the city. She still hadn’t given much thought to what she would do. She supposed she could go home to Kenya. It would certainly be nice to see her family again, but to spend the money to fly back to Africa just to have to fly out for work again would be an expense she probably couldn’t afford. She heard talks that AsterCorp would be starting a second space elevator somewhere and that most of the workers would be transferred but it sounded more like desperate speculation.
'Not that I want to work for AsterCorp anymore anyway,' she thought. She’d been working far too many hours and with lack of progress on her protests, she wasn’t thrilled at the thought of turning this contract work into a career. When she had first moved from Kenya, she had naively imagined herself rising through a corporate ladder and coming out on top as some senior manager. Karla saw herself, returning home in a sharp business suit, sporting a pair of TechLenses as she stepped off a private jet. She’d take her family and build them a nice home so that they’d never have to work again. She thought if she had put in enough time, someone, somewhere would take notice and find some skill that was useful. As it was, the best skill she had was welding beams at 1200 kilometers in the air. Luckily she had outgrown this view rather early, it didn’t take long for someone to realize that once they started as an AsterCorp construction worker, they’d stay that way for the entire foreseeable future.
The capsule pulled into the block that housed non AsterCorp employees. A asian man wearing a security uniform sat next to her and promptly put his head back to sleep. His badge read Chen Long and indicated he worked for Skyforged Engineering. Another corporation known for their poor worker treatment. She half jokingly thought of handing him a worker’s rights pamphlet. His sunken face was heavily lined and the bags under his eyes indicated that his hours probably were just as bad as her own. However even if she did hand him a pamphlet, there was no guarantee he would agree to join. So many people in Manta were far to scared of their job security to ever speak up. At the moment, their weekly group meetings consisted only of a few dozen members. If they could get even one in ten workers in the city to join, their numbers would rank in the hundreds, enough to get their voices heard maybe. As her stop neared a chime sounded in her head from her OcCom implant. As she stood, she tucked a pamphlet into the still sleeping man’s jacket, wondering if she'd see him at that week's meeting.